WTGS-TV
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WTGS (channel 28) is a
television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
licensed to Hardeeville, South Carolina, United States, serving as the
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
affiliate for the
Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...
, area. Owned by
Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...
, WTGS maintains transmitter facilities on Fort Argyle Road/ SR 204 in western unincorporated
Chatham County, Georgia Chatham County ( ) is located in the U.S. state of Georgia, on the state's Atlantic coast. The county seat and largest city is Savannah. One of the original counties of Georgia, Chatham County was created February 5, 1777, and is named after Will ...
, while its studios are located in the ''
Savannah Morning News The ''Savannah Morning News'' is a daily newspaper in Savannah, Georgia. It is published by Gannett. The motto of the paper is "Light of the Coastal Empire and Lowcountry". The paper serves Savannah, its metropolitan area, and parts of South Ca ...
'' building on Chatham Parkway in Savannah. WTGS went on the air in 1985 as the first independent television station for Savannah and the southern Lowcountry and the lone commercial television station in southeastern South Carolina. Originally built by a Florida company, a change in federal regulations on cable carriage that took effect weeks before starting up nearly carried the station to the brink of bankruptcy. Between 1996 and 2014, operations of WTGS were related to those of WJCL (channel 22), Savannah's
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affiliate, by a series of operating agreements. During much of this period, WJCL produced local newscasts for air on WTGS. However, the two stations were split in 2014 when owner LIN Media and its affiliates opted to divest WJCL and WTGS to separate entities in order to complete a merger. The two stations continue to share office space, though Sinclair now handles news production itself for WTGS.


History


Early years, cable disputes, and near-bankruptcy (19851996)

Business and Minority Coalition Broadcasters, Inc., a consortium of six investors from
Charleston Charleston most commonly refers to: * Charleston, South Carolina * Charleston, West Virginia, the state capital * Charleston (dance) Charleston may also refer to: Places Australia * Charleston, South Australia Canada * Charleston, Newfoundlan ...
, filed an application with the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) to build a new television station on channel 28 in Hardeeville ( from the allocation city of Savannah, the maximum distance permitted), which would transmit from a site on St. Helena Island and reach audiences from
Kiawah Island Kiawah may refer to * Kiawah Island, South Carolina * the Kiawah people The Kiawah were a constituent group of the Cusabo people,
in the northeast to Savannah in the southwest. The FCC approved the license on November 17, 1981, and it took the call sign WTGS, with a planned start date in September 1982. The WTGS construction permit was purchased in 1983 by American Communications and Television (AC&T), a company based in
Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gaine ...
. This cable and communications firm was making an incursion into new full-power and low-power independent stations across the country. It was another two years before movement began in earnest to build the station, whose founding general manager and 20% owner, John Bailie, had previously built two other Southern independents: WPTY in Memphis and WAWS-TV in Jacksonville. Planned programming included movies and children's programming in the morning and afternoon, with few commercial interruptions; Bailie stated that WTGS was the first TV station "programmed exclusively for the Lowcountry". The station signed on September 1, 1985, as the market's first general entertainment
independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...
outlet. On July 19, 1985 (a few months before WTGS officially signed on), a federal judge struck down the " must-carry" rule imposed by the FCC, which required cable television operators to carry all commercial over-the-air stations within 35 miles of its community of service. This decision was challenging for WTGS, as Bailie felt that it would cause the new station to become "squeezed out of the market". By August 30, Savannah Cablevision, along with seven other local cable operators, had agreed to carry WTGS. However, Plantation Cablevision and Hargray Cablevision, along with "dozens" of other local cable operators, had refused to carry WTGS. WTGS was one of the first stations to pay for carriage on a cable system, leasing a channel from Savannah Cablevision for $2,000 a month (). In particular, WTGS stated that Plantation Cablevision refused to carry the station, as they considered it to be competition; however, Plantation Cablevision stated that they did not carry WTGS due to the removal of the must-carry rule. Plantation Cablevision also denied having wanted WTGS to pay for access to its cable system. The controversy continued that September, when Plantation Cablevision announced a new emergency warning system for
Hilton Head Island Hilton Head Island, sometimes referred to as simply Hilton Head, is a South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry resort town and barrier island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. It is northeast of Savannah, Georgia, and southwest of C ...
. This angered Bailie, as he was concerned that those who did not subscribe to Plantation Cablevision's service would not be able to receive emergency information; WTGS decided to create its own emergency warning system instead. That September, Bailie went to
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
at the invitation of broadcasting groups, in order to speak to congressional leaders who were concerned that the repeal of the must-carry rule would hurt independent stations such as WTGS. The next month, Bailie revisited Congress in order to comment to the House Copyright Committee about bills in consideration at the time which would reform " compulsory license" rules. That same month, Plantation Cablevision was "carefully documenting requests" for WTGS to be added to its cable lineup, and had sent out a questionnaire to subscribers in order to measure what viewers liked and disliked about the cable system. On December 27, 1985, Plantation Cablevision started to carry WTGS; the addition of WTGS removed Charleston stations WCBD and WCIV from the lineup. WTGS was a charter affiliate of Fox at its October 1986 launch. In May 1987, the station was profiled on the ''
MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour ''PBS NewsHour'' is an American evening news broadcasting#television, television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS Network affiliate#Member stations, member stations. It airs seven nights a week, and is known for its in-depth coverage of i ...
'', by which time it was so near to bankruptcy—due to its diminished ability to reach all TV homes in the region—that Bailie lived and slept in his office and drove a taxi cab the station had bought to promote the show ''
Taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice ...
''. Later that year, AC&T sold itself to new Florida-based owners, giving it an infusion of $500,000 in cash. The new ownership moved the station's facilities south from Hardeeville to a site in
Chatham County, Georgia Chatham County ( ) is located in the U.S. state of Georgia, on the state's Atlantic coast. The county seat and largest city is Savannah. One of the original counties of Georgia, Chatham County was created February 5, 1777, and is named after Will ...
, which would not be limited by height restrictions on a tower and be more centrally located for advertising sales purposes. The new tower was activated in February 1990. AC&T sold its two remaining stations, WTGS and KOOG in
Ogden, Utah Ogden is a city in and the county seat of Weber County, Utah, United States, approximately east of the Great Salt Lake and north of Salt Lake City. The population was 87,321 in 2020, according to the US Census Bureau, making it Utah's eighth ...
, to Trivest Financial Services Corporation in 1991.


Common operation with WJCL (19962014)

Licensee Hilton Head Television sold the station in 1996 for $7 million to LP Media, a company owned by Julius Curtis Lewis III. His father, Julius Curtis Lewis Jr., was the majority owner and namesake of WJCL television. The two stations came under common operation at that time. Lewis sold WJCL in 1998 to Grapevine Communications of Atlanta for $19 million, and in a parallel transaction, LP Media sold WTGS to Brissette Communications, owned by Paul Brissette, for $20 million. After Grapevine Communications, having purchased and changed its name to GOCOM in 1999, became
Piedmont Television Piedmont Television was a broadcasting company in the United States that owned television stations in smaller markets. The company was based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Piedmont was founded in 1996 as Grapevine Communications, and was originall ...
Holdings (owned by Brissette), WTGS was sold to Bluenose Broadcasting, a company owned by members of the Brissette family. Parkin Broadcasting purchased WTGS for $17.5 million in 2007, in tandem with
New Vision Television New Vision Television was a broadcast company based in Santa Monica, California. Throughout its two decade plus history, the company owned or managed over 60 television stations in large and medium-sized markets. History New Vision I Formed by ...
acquiring WJCL—and WJCL's option to buy WTGS's assets—for the same price. The two stations moved out of WJCL's longtime Abercorn Street studios to the vacant third floor of the ''
Savannah Morning News The ''Savannah Morning News'' is a daily newspaper in Savannah, Georgia. It is published by Gannett. The motto of the paper is "Light of the Coastal Empire and Lowcountry". The paper serves Savannah, its metropolitan area, and parts of South Ca ...
'' building in 2011, establishing a content partnership with the newspaper. In 2012, LIN TV Corporation purchased New Vision Television and WJCL, which included a tandem sale of WTGS and two other stations that New Vision operated—
KTKA-TV KTKA-TV (channel 49) is a television station in Topeka, Kansas, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW Plus. It is owned by Vaughan Media, LLC, which maintains joint sales and shared services agreements (JSA/SSA) with Nexstar Media Gro ...
in
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, and WYTV in
Youngstown, Ohio Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the largest city and county seat of Mahoning County, Ohio, Mahoning County. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Youngstown had a city population of 60,068. It is a principal city of ...
—to Vaughan Media. During Super Bowl XLVIII, WTGS notably aired a two-minute long advertisement by local personal injury lawyer Jamie Casino, which featured a
thriller Thriller may refer to: * Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television ** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre Comics * ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...
-styled retelling of how he stopped representing "cold-hearted villains" to avenge the shooting death of his brother Michael Biancosino in 2012, culminating with Casino digging through a grave with a
sledgehammer A sledgehammer is a tool with a large, flat, often metal head, attached to a long handle. The long handle combined with a heavy head allows the sledgehammer to gather momentum during a swing and apply a large force compared to hammers designed t ...
. The ad gained media attention following the game as a
viral video A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander Haupt ...
, and while the station did not provide exact numbers, a WTGS spokesperson stated that the ad was its most expensive advertising sale in history.


Sinclair Broadcast Group ownership (2014present)

On March 21, 2014, LIN Media entered into an agreement to merge with Media General in a $1.6 billion deal. Because Media General already owned NBC affiliate
WSAV-TV WSAV-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Savannah, Georgia, United States, affiliated with NBC, The CW Plus, and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on East Victory Drive/US 80/ SR 26 in Savannah's Live ...
(channel 3), the companies were required to sell either WSAV or WJCL to another station owner in order to comply with FCC ownership rules as well as planned changes to those rules regarding same-market television stations which would prohibit sharing agreements. On August 20, Media General announced that it would keep WSAV and sell WJCL to Hearst Television. It also would swap WTGS and television stations in
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, and
Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea lev ...
, in exchange for properties that Sinclair owned or was acquiring in
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;
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; and
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. Sinclair also acquired the right to purchase other WTGS assets from WTGS Television LLC. The sale was completed on December 19.


Newscasts

Through a news share agreement established in 1996, WJCL produced a nightly prime time newscast on WTGS for the station from 1996 to 2016. On June 1, 2016, WJCL ceased producing the newscast for WTGS, and Sinclair took production in-house. The news program is produced and presented from WPDE-TV in Myrtle Beach, using a local staff of seven.


Technical information


Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:


Analog-to-digital conversion

WTGS discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over
UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
channel 28, on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 27 to channel 28. It was then repacked to channel 26 in 2020.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wtgs Television channels and stations established in 1985 1985 establishments in South Carolina TGS Fox network affiliates Comet (TV network) affiliates Antenna TV affiliates TBD (TV network) affiliates Charge! (TV network) affiliates Sinclair Broadcast Group Jasper County, South Carolina Beaufort County, South Carolina